Lenoir County approves courthouse design changes, server relocation
Lenoir County commissioners approved two courthouse renovation-related contract amendments Monday, including design work tied to relocating the county’s primary server and adding courtroom space.
The board approved an $18,000 contract amendment with JKF Architecture for temporary courthouse facility design. The work is connected to relocating the county’s primary server from the courthouse to the county Administration Building before courthouse construction begins.
Assistant County Manager Adam Short said the county is planning for temporary modular court and office space while courthouse renovation work is underway. He said maintaining IT service is one of the first hurdles.
“In short, if that server goes down, the county goes down,” Short said.
Short said the county originally considered relocating the server elsewhere inside the courthouse, but that created construction and service risks.
“If we rebuilt a new server room, say in the top story of the courthouse, somebody cuts a wire or if something goes wrong, that server goes down, we’re right back where we were,” Short said.
The new plan would make the Administration Building the county’s primary server location.
“The courthouse, rather than, say, the admin building getting fed from the courthouse going forward, it would be the admin building feeding the courthouse and elsewhere from there,” Short said.
Commissioners also approved a $43,500 contract amendment with JKF Architecture for courthouse renovation design. Short said the amendment includes structural design work tied to creating a fifth courtroom by dividing the existing superior courtroom into civil and criminal courtroom spaces.
“One thing that we heard loud and clear was we need courtroom space,” Short said.
The design work also includes a proposed canopy on the north side of the courthouse to cover accessible parking spaces and the entrance ramp. Short said the canopy would be included as an alternate bid item, meaning commissioners could decide later whether to move forward with that portion.
Board Chair Linda Rouse Sutton said the lack of covered access creates hardship for people using the courthouse during bad weather.
“There’s no way that anybody can go in the courthouse now if it’s raining that they are covered,” Sutton said.
Commissioner Keith King raised concern about additional costs coming early in the renovation process.
“We’re just in a bad area where we’re already doing change orders and the project didn’t even get off the ground,” King said. “That being in construction, this is not a good start.”
King said he understood the need for both the courtroom and accessibility changes, but said the county should be cautious about early change orders. The board approved the amendment.
